Not Good Enough Motorola Mobility

A decent showing from Motororola Mobility which reported its first earnings today as an independent company. For its fourth quarter, the company posted earnings of 37 cents a share on revenue of $3.43 billion, which was largely in-line with consensus. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 36 cents a share for the period, with revenue of $3.4 billion.

So a penny better on earnings-per-share and in-line on revenue. Not bad, but not good enough, either. Certainly not good enough to outweigh smartphone shipments that fell a bit short of expectations–4.9 million to the 5.2 million the Street had been looking for–and a disappointing outlook. Looking ahead to the first quarter, the company sees a net loss per share of $0.09 to $0.21 compared to the $0.12-$0.13 loss predicted by analysts. Why the disparity? The unexpected costs of independence, perhaps. And, undoubtedly, the debut of the iPhone on Verizon with which its handsets will soon be competing. Remember, Verizon’s original motivation for embracing Android handsets like those Motorola Mobility creates was to offer its subscribers an iPhone-equivalent. Now that it’s able to offer them the real thing, some are certain to opt for it over competing Android devices.

At $33.15 shares of Motororola Mobility are down 4.82 percent as I write this.

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